Dry Ice
by EmberwolfSasha
Summary: Gray smokes and Lucy disapproves. Why does she hate it so much and is that reason enough to get Gray to quit? - Gracy


Hello, hello! First off, to those reading my other story: I haven't forgotten about it and I intend to finish it. This story just kinda popped into my head though and it wouldn't leave.

Now, for stuff about this story...I used to be a NaLu fan (and I still like reading them) but between fanfics and parts of the actualy FT manga I've been converted to a Gracy fan. This came about after kind of just staring at Gray smoking in the manga and wondering why he didn't do it as much or at all later on. This is in no way meant to bash smokers (though I certainly don't like people smoking near me) or anything. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this story. Drop me a review if you do or constructive criticism if you don't!

Fairy Tail and its characters belong to Hiro Mashima. I can only wish I owned them.

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><p>Smoke curled up lazily from the end of the cigarette perched in Gray's mouth as he observed the oddly peaceful guild. Fairy Tail's infamous Salamander was out on a mission and most of the chaos tended to follow the dragon slayer out the door. Dark blue eyes glanced over the adults no doubt arguing about the younger generation, past Elfman and Cana talking over a large keg of beer (three guesses which of the two it belonged to, and the first two don't count), and landed on the attractive blonde sitting dejectedly at the bar. Why she thought she had to sit around and wait for the flame-brain to return Gray had no idea but he decided to do something about it.<p>

Before he could actually get up, though, the ashes at the end of his cigarette fell onto his bare chest. The usually cool ice mage yelped and sat up straight, brushing the ashes to the floor. He almost glared balefully at them when he realized Lucy was laughing. She was laughing at him. "It's not funny," he groused, the slight pink tinge to his cheeks betraying his embarrassment. To her credit, she managed to stifle her laughter into giggles even if her warm, chocolate brown eyes were still laughing at him.

When he proceeded to glare at her Lucy held up a hand in defeat and said, "Alright, I'm sorry." _Doesn__'__t sound like it,_ he thought though his glare lessened. "But really, that is why smoking isn't cool." Curious, and a bit amused, Gray raised a brow and fixed the girl with an intense gaze. She fidgeted and turned to Mirajane as if for help but the s-class mage was busy serving drinks to a couple men further down the bar.

Gray moved to sit next to her as he'd intended to from the start, leaning against the bar nonchalantly, and watched her wrinkle her nose in disgust when he took a drag of his cigarette and let it out. Her disgust seemed to give her confidence again because she finally continued with, "Well, it smells bad." The ice mage chuckled deeply. "'It smells bad,' that's it? Really, Lucy, I expected a better argument than that from you." Teasingly, he let out a puff in her direction. He didn't anticipate Lucy would take such extreme offense at the action.

"Gray!" The ice mage winced at her shrill tone and even managed a sheepish look at the enraged expression on his team mate's face. Not to mention all the looks from others in the guild. As silence descended in the guild he huffed under his breath and unknowingly shed his pants and one sock before Lucy's wide-eyed and still annoyed gaze dawned on him. Cana helpfully mentioned his lack of clothing. "Shit!" He stood abruptly, all but jumping into his pants again as he crossed to the request board.

Silently he swiped a random one when he saw the number of zeroes in the reward, knowing it'd help his apology if he helped Lucy with her rent at the same time. With all eyes still on him he moved back to his team mate and pulled her off the bar stool by her wrist, demanding, "Come on. We're going on a mission."

Mission and shirt in one hand and Lucy's wrist still in the other (he was trying oh so hard to ignore the tingly heat in that hand) he stormed out of the guild despite Lucy's protests. "Hey! Wai- Gray! What are y-" "Sorry."

Stunned, the celestial mage was forced to ask, "What?" She almost started at the sudden lack of a slightly cool hand on her wrist when Gray let go to run it through his shaggy black hair. "I said I'm sorry. For the…uh smoke thing," Gray mumbled as sincerely as he could. He didn't really understand _why_ it was such a big deal to her but…he didn't like her pissed off. Especially not at him. She could be scarier than Erza sometimes! He watched almost too closely for when her lips tipped upward in the tiniest show of forgiveness. "Just don't do it again!" She huffed, feigning at still being angry although she knew he knew she wasn't.

Gray grinned roguishly before glancing at the mission he'd randomly snagged off the board earlier. He rolled his eyes. _Great. _"There's no way we can mess this one up without fire-breath around," the ice mage commented dryly, clearly uninterested in the mission. He handed the paper over to her and ignored her puzzled frown at his reaction.

Lucy smiled brightly at him when she saw what their task was and suddenly Gray couldn't bring himself to completely hate the job if it made her smile like that at him. It had been an accident grabbing such a dull job but he found himself rather glad he had. Lucy was about as big a bookworm as Levy was.

Together they made their way to the library and Gray pulled on his shirt before entering. The guild may be used to his stripping habit but the rest of Fiore sure wasn't. The library was especially strict about clothes being worn. Probably why he didn't visit the library all that often. Besides, reading was just so _boring._

The poor little receptionist nearly fainted when he lifted his shirt to display his guild mark and he smirked. _Shouldn__'__t have asked in the first place, heh,_ he thought before catching Lucy looking at him with a chagrined look as if she knew his thoughts. Probably did, she could be damn perceptive sometimes. When he dropped his shirt back down she looked almost disappointed. Then Lucy took the key to the magic section from the receptionist - the library could hardly let any old person into that section - and the moment was gone.

Frowning faintly he followed her to the back of the library. _Was she checking me out?_ His eyes rather shamelessly following her behind as he wondered about her reaction. Unlike a certain clueless fire mage on their team, Gray was anything but oblivious and childish…because fighting anytime you saw someone wasn't childish. Yup.

Okay, so what if not being childish was debateable, he definitely wasn't oblivious. Lucy had the best body in all of Fairy Tail, and possibly Magnolia too. Gemini may have sugar-coated his words by saying she was 'cute' but if it had really been him he'd have said 'smoking hot' (and then would have pretended to be disgusted by the connection of smoke and heat to Natsu). She was also smart, caring, and relatively normal. Well…normal if you discount that she used to live like a princess and still occasionally betrayed the mannerisms of one. Was it such a surprise that he found himself falling for her?

Lucy stopped in front of the door to the magic section long enough to unlock it before breezing in with an even brighter smile than before. He forced his eyes away from her delicious bottom to glance around the room and almost groaned. _No wonder the reward is so high for such a seemingly easy task! _Gray thought as he took in the books scattered everywhere. There was even one left open on one of the three tables in the room that may or may not have been emitting a pukey-green glow.

"I've always wanted to check out this section but they never let me in," Lucy said, catching the teen's attention again. Gray shrugged and asked, "Why? The guild has better books about magic than the library would."

"Yes, but I've read those already."

Gray blinked, surprised and a little impressed. "All of them?" There were hundreds of books in Fairy Tail's personal library. A quick glance at the room they were in confirmed there were fewer magic books there than at the guild.

Lucy pulled out a pair of glasses from god knows where while he wasn't looking. Gray was almost willing to bet she hid them in her breasts. They were certainly big enough. He looked at the glasses a little more closely as he tried to desperate resist the urge to stare at her chest. "Ah, that explains a lot." And it did. Gale-force reading glasses drastically increased reading speed. It only proved how smart she must be (despite how she sometimes acts) if she can process that much information in such a short time.

Lucy smiled at Gray and suggested, "I'll start at that corner and work my way to that one. How about you start with that corner and go along that side?" In time with her talking she indicated the far left corner of the room before her hand drifted to the right one where it stayed before drifting along the wall to the corner just to their right.

The public library's magic section really was quite small if all the books fit in one square room, wall-to-wall. Lucy had taken the wall from A to I while suggesting Gray take J to N. The ice mage shrugged and moved on over to his corner. He discretely took another look at Lucy's ass as she went over to her first shelf before getting to work.

The pair worked in relative silence until, "Why do you smoke anyways?" Gray paused in his work, glancing vaguely in the blonde's direction (_Geez, she's already half done her side?_) with a light frown. The smoke coming from him reminded him of what he couldn't forget. Weakness. Panic. Deliora. His parents, dead. Smoke, so much smoke…but he couldn't tell Lucy any of that. _And why can't I?_ Gray wondered briefly.

"Gray?" Lucy asked, concerned about his silent, thoughtful expression.

"Why are you so against it?" He demanded in response. When he saw Lucy hesitate he smiled smugly. _She doesn't have an answer, does she?_

"I- my mother. She and my father were in a merchant's guild before Papa made it big," she began explaining, "The people there smoked a lot and my mom just had too much of it. It made her sick and she had to give up being a mage."

Gray was stunned. Lucy always wrote those letters to her deceased mother but she never actually spoke about her. That she trusted him enough to bring her up…he smiled a little and hastily shoved his face into a book to hide it. He had a feeling smiling about this particular story wouldn't go over well with Lucy. He stayed silent and, as expected, Lucy continued on. Was that a waver her heard in her voice?

"She eventually got too sick and passed away." There was a heavy pause then, the atmosphere weighted down with an odd sort of tension as Lucy cleared her throat. "Gray, I- please stop smoking? I don't want to lose you too…" she trailed off, voice growing quieter.

Gray still heard her. He looked at her then, really looked at her. Her chocolate brown eyes were shining with unshed tears and her cheeks were a little red - _And she somehow sorted even more of those books!_ "Lucy-"

"I like you, Gray!" The celestial mage cut across him. "I have for a while, okay? And I don't care if you return my feelings or not and I don't mean to pressure you into stopping but plea-"

Knowing Lucy could continue on with her blabbering all day if he let her, Gray stepped up to her. She fell silent as she registered how dangerously close he was and he smirked when he saw her eyes widen. His pale, toned chest was visible once again and she rarely got such a close look at it.

"Lucy?" Gray's smirk widened into a smile when she forcefully dragged her eyes up to meet his hesitantly. "Shut up." When Lucy started opening her mouth to say something he practically growled and sealed her lips with his own. As he moved his lips against hers he felt her begin to loosen up and respond.

Before he could attempt to deepen it further he felt her hands - _So hot, so hot_ - against his chest, pushing him away even as she pulled back with her head. With a breathy giggle she commented, "You taste gross, Gray."

He grinned roguishly. "I can fix that? If I quit smoking will you go out with me?"

"Do you like me?" Lucy asked seriously. Well, if she wanted to hear it so bad, who was he to deny her?

"Yes, I like you Luce. I have ever since Galuna Island," Gray said, equally serious.

When Lucy smiled at him, Gray knew everything would be perfect. "Then, yes, I'll go out with you."

Gray found that he didn't even need to use Lucy's cigarette alternative of frozen carbon dioxide (though it did provide a rather interesting, slightly breathless sensation when he put a stick of dry ice in his mouth). Lucy herself was a far better addiction…with a bonus for also grossing Natsu out whenever they kissed near him.


End file.
